


It's Important to me!

by juhakus



Series: ASL drabbles [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Innocence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-30 01:09:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5144774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juhakus/pseuds/juhakus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ace wanted to just teach Luffy a lesson, but it goes a little too far.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Important to me!

 

      Finally, a peaceful, calm morning. A cigarette and a lawn chair was all Dadan would ever need. The brats for once slept in, and she got a small window of opportunity. A nice, relaxing morn-

 

     “ACE! GIVE IT BACK RIGHT NOW!"

 

     Dadan jumped out of her chair and nearly choked on her cigarette. Her face planted onto the wood below her. Could she really not have a moment of peace?!

 

     Two of the brats came running out of the house. The first was Ace, who was wearing Luffy’s straw hat. Luffy came out shortly after as they both sprinted into the woods. The third brat calmly walked after them.

 

     In just a few moments, they were gone. She couldn’t care less where they went as long as they stayed out of her damn hair. Thinking she could go back to a peaceful state was too good to be true. Where were those boys going anyway? Didn't they have chores to do?!

 

     Now her face was a deep shade of red; with anger. The brats not only ruined her perfect morning, they didn't do their chores either! 

 

 

-

 

     “ACE I MEAN IT!” Luffy was panting, still trying to catch up to his brother, “GIVE IT BACK!"

 

     Ace turned around and stuck his tongue out, “Never!” His pace quickened, leaving Luffy farther behind. “You gotta catch me first!"

 

     It seemed like they were running for hours. Luffy wanted to give up and wait for Ace to return. But Shanks trusted him with that hat! He couldn’t bear a second without the most important thing to him. 

 

     Sabo was started to speed up, “Ace! Luffy! Slow down for a second!” Luffy seemed to be the only one who heard Sabo’s plea, and immediately stopped. He waited for his brother to catch up, but to Luffy’s disbelief, he passed him. 

 

     “HEY SABO!” Luffy screamed, running after him, “I waited for you why did you go faster?!"

 

     “Ah! Sorry, sorry!” Sabo was now running next to Luffy, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll help you get your hat back. So let’s catch Ace!"

 

     Luffy could only nod, as talking while running wasted precious energy. The forest was deep, almost like a maze. It has taken Luffy months to navigate himself, just barely. Sabo and Ace know the forest like second nature, so having Sabo with him helped. 

 

     They finally reached Ace after a desperate attempt to catch up to him. Ace was standing on a bridge over a small river. He held the straw hat in his hands tightly. Luffy sighed in relief, seeing that it was still there.

 

     “Ace!” Luffy panted, “I caught up to you, so give it back!"

 

     “You didn’t catch up to me! I stopped and waited for you!” 

 

     Luffy and Sabo simultaneously huffed in reply. Even Sabo didn’t want to put up with this game any longer. The older brother could see Luffy losing his patience quickly. This could escalate into a big mess.

 

     Noticing the change in mood, Sabo stepped in, “Ace! Give Luffy his hat back already! This shouldn’t be part of his training."

 

     The freckled boy laughed, “Sabo don’t be so weak! This crybaby needs to learn, that’s all.” He turned to Luffy, “It’s just a hat anyway! What’s so great about this thing. It doesn’t even look that great."

 

     Sabo felt like he heard Luffy snap. Ace was making fun of his precious hat right in front of him. The entire aura around his younger brother changed in almost an instant. 

 

     Without uttering a single reply, Luffy pounced on Ace. He was taken back by the sudden reaction, and didn’t have time to react.

 

     The bridge below the two began to sway when Luffy jumped on Ace. They were rolling around and hitting each other. Sabo noticed Luffy’s punches were much stronger than he would usually see. Punches with more emotion.

 

     Ace let go of the hat in order to fight Luffy back. Completely forgetting about the hat as it slowly shifted off the bridge. Neither of them noticed, as they were too busy fighting. Sabo, however, saw it roll off and began screaming at them.

 

     “Stop fighting you two!” Sabo screeched, finally getting their attention, “The hat! The hat!"

 

     The two boys’ eyes shifted over to the river below them. Luffy’s immediate response was to dive in after his hat. His thought process jumbled, Luffy dived into the river. Ace was amazed by his brother’s sudden action, especially since he couldn’t swim.

 

     As soon as he hit the water, Luffy realized what he had done. He immediately began to feel water reach his nose, eyes, mouth. The water around him amde his muscles and limps go weak. He couldn’t even manage a cry for help.

 

     Luckily, Ace and Sabo both jumped in after him. Sabo went straight to Luffy to keep from him drowning. Ace, however, noticed the hat moving faster down the stream. Sabo yelled for him, noticing the danger. However, his brother didn’t seem to have a care in the world. With Luffy safe with Sabo, he had to save Luffy’s most precious item.

 

     Ace realized that he had underestimated the flow of the stream. He couldn’t get control of his body as he began to run into rocks. Hard. He barely even noticed his own blood flowing behind him in the water. Ace began to swim with the current; he didn’t care what were to happen to him. All he could think about was how upset Luffy would be if he lost this straw hat. 

 

    Slamming into rock after rock, Ace was losing his energy. His legs brushed against stones under the water, leaving small cuts all over him. By now, He was gasping for air-the river was no longer as shallow. His feet couldn't feel the bottom anymore, he began to panic. At this point his own life was in danger. But Ace would never be able to face Luffy if his straw hat were lost forever. In fact, he'd rather die than see all of Luffy's dreams flow down this river. 

 

-

 

     “Please, Luffy. Stop crying for two seconds!"

 

     Immediately, his wails and cries and stopped.

 

     “Thank you,” Sabo was sitting next to Luffy against a giant tree. They were close to the river where the previous events occurred. Luffy almost coughed up a lung from all the water he took, but this wasn’t his main concern. The straw hat, the hat that Shanks trusted him with was gone. Not only that, Ace swam after it hours ago. They haven’t seen him since.

 

     Sabo continued, “Ace will be back. He’ll even have your hat too, I promise!” He tried his best to console is younger brother. But Sabo wasn’t even believing his own words. He was scared of Ace not returning, or even worse, dying.

 

     “Sabo, Ace…Ace he-“ Luffy wasn’t able to continue his sentence before breaking down into sobs again. He shoved his head between his knees and cried. “ACE IS GOING TO DIE, ISN’T HE?!"

 

     “Who are you talking about?!"

 

     Both Sabo and Luffy looked up immediately. The voice was no mistake, it was their brother, Ace.

 

     This only made Luffy cry more, of course.

 

     “ACE!” They were both crying now, “WE THOUGHT YOU WERE GONNA DIE!” 

 

     “I’ll never die,” Ace said proudly, “Especially not over something so stupid like this!"

 

     Luffy stopped crying for a split second, “SHANKS’ HAT ISN’T STUPID!"

 

     “HOW ABOUT A 'THANK YOU’?!” Ace yelled back, already annoyed, “I almost died trying to get your hat back!"

 

     “I-"

 

     “But I don’t regret going after it,” Ace began, “I know this hat is important to you. I’m sorry I did all of that stuff earlier. You have to return this hat when you become a big pirate, right?” 

 

     Luffy nodded, choking back more sobs. Ace put the hat on his brother’s head, “So make sure you don’t lose it next time, got it?!"

 

     The three of them laughed for a moment. To be honest, Luffy didn’t care about the hat for those few hours. In fact, it barely even crossed his mind. He was worried about Ace not returning to him. But he was thankful, he got to have two precious things in life back to him. He began to ponder what Shanks meant by becoming a great pirate. Was it truly capturing the One Piece and becoming the Pirate King? Luffy didn't think on it much longer, his attention span as never been the greatest. But he did know one thing, Ace nearly died trying to retrieve Shanks' hat back. He did all that for his crybaby little brother.

 

      _“Luffy, bring this hat back to me when you’ve become a great pirate!"_

     

 


End file.
